Waldorf Hotel leaseholders to cease operations(with video)

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The announcement Wednesday by the current leaseholders of the Waldorf Hotel that they would cease operations as of Jan. 20 has rocked Vancouver’s arts community.

Since 2010, the hotel has been operating as a multi-use venue, hosting live music, readings, art installations, magazine launches and more.

But the group running the East Hastings venue say they will leave now that the hotel has been sold to a condo developer.

Social media users were swift to react. Comments on Twitter expressed dismay at the city losing another arts venue. The Facebook page of the reported developer, Solterra Group of Companies, swiftly filled with negative comments, many expletive-filled.

Vancouver artist Paul Wong, who has designed art installations at the hotel, echoed the sentiment of many when he said that the loss of the people behind the revitalization of the Waldorf “is a shock.”

“There are very few places left where people can rip and roar in this city anymore,” Wong said. “Everything has been condo-ized, where everything has to shut down by eleven. Everyone has to belong to complexes or developments. That doesn’t leave room for artistic, creative, explosive, interesting, underground, off-the-grid activity.”

According to a statement issued by the group running the hotel’s operations, the Waldorf’s owner Marko Puharich has sold the 65-year-old building.

The sale comes just over two years after Thomas Anselmi and partners Daniel Fazio and Ernesto Gomez, along with Scott Cohen, took over the hotel’s two nightclub spaces, tiki bar, restaurant and rooms. The hotel also has a cold beer and wine store, which was not overseen by Anselmi and his partners.

Anselmi, the hotel’s entertainment director, said that they first learned about the sale last Thursday. They were hoping to have a meeting with the new owner.

“We were rejected out of hand,” Anselmi said. “They don’t know who we are. They have no interest in meeting with us.”

According to the statement, when Anselmi and his partners took over in the summer of 2010 they signed a 15-year offer to lease the building.

Last year, they asked landlord Marko Puharich for some help in forgiving rent.

“He gracefully agreed to give it to us,” Anselmi said.

In August, Anselmi and his partners “were offered a four-month lease at a very reasonable price. They said we’d revisit this agreement in January if we signed this lease,” he said.

This was done to break the long-term offer to lease, Anselmi alleged.

Gavin Crickmore, lawyer for the Waldorf Hotel, said he is “unable to confirm or discuss any possible sale of the hotel.”

He said that the Waldorf operators “have been operating under a lease for the last four months that expired at the beginning of January. They are current on all their rent.”

Crickmore also said that “the only formal lease they ever entered into was the lease that began in September.”

Crickmore said the hotel will continue to operate on and after Jan 20. He would not say how long he has been representing the Waldorf except to say, “I’ve represented the hotel for an extended period of time.”

Anselmi said that he feels as though he and his partners have been used.

“We changed the area. There was no one talking about building condominiums before we moved here. There was nothing.”

In a statement issued by the mayor’s office, Mayor Gregor Robertson said, “The Waldorf closing is a big loss to Vancouver’s growing creative community. They built a great culture hub, and it’s my hope that they’ll be able to re-launch and return in some form in the near future. Supporting Vancouver’s dynamic arts and culture sector is a top priority of our City Council, and the City is exploring ways to support the Waldorf continuing as one of Vancouver’s most unique and vibrant cultural spaces.”

The statement also said, “The site at 1489 East Hastings is currently zoned for mixed-use commercial purposes, not residential development. Any change in zoning would require extensive neighbourhood consultation and approval by City Council.”

“It was a place to eat and meet and greet, to put on things and go to things,” Wong said. “It really has been my cultural hub for the last two point five years. I’d just written some proposals recently to try to develop some more engaging things there. It’s a loss of a venue for me.”

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Waldorf Hotel leaseholders to cease operations(with video)

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